PPL to invest Rs 400 crore on capacity expansion

Paradeep Phosphates Limited (PPL) has drawn up a plan to invest Rs 400 crore in the next four years to scale up its production capacity of phosphatic fertilisers from 12 lakh tonnes at present to 20 lakh tonnes by 2013.

“PPL plans to invest Rs 400 crore to scale up its production capacity to 20 lakh tonnes by 2013. However, the investment plan is still at the drawing board stage and the details are yet to be worked out”, SS Nandurdikar, managing director, PPL told mediapersons here.

PPL’s net profit zoomed by 107.4 per cent at Rs 173.25 crore in 2008-09 as against Rs 83.5 crore in 2007-08. The company’s net profit of Rs 173.25 crore for 2008-09 excludes the concession of Rs 364 crore which PPL obtained under the rehabilitation scheme of the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR).The company recorded a 108.73 per cent surge in its turnover at Rs 5,114 crore for 2008-09 compared to Rs 2,450 crore for 2007-08.

“The Centre’s policy to fix prices of the DAP fertliser on import price parity basis rather the earlier cost-based approach from April 1, 2008 helped us to record growth in net profit. Moreover, PPL came out with effective strategies to cope up with the changing cycles of commodities and the economy after the fertiliser industry was exposed to global competition following the new pricing policy of the Centre”, said Nandurdikar. PPL’s production in 2008-09 stood at 10.22 lakh tonnes which is a 20.4 per cent decline compared to the company’s production of 12.84 lakh tonnes in 2007-08.

Among the intermediary products, the production of sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid was 6.36 lakh tonnes and 2.37 lakh tonnes respectively. Out of PPL’s total production of 10.22 lakh tonnes, the production of DAP (Di-Ammonium Phosphate) fertiliser was 4.7 lakh tonnes while the combined production of the three different grades of NPK fertilisers stood at 5.5 lakh tonnes. PPL went for a cut in fertiliser production in 2009-10 in the wake of crash in prices of DAP fertiliser in the international market triggered by a slump in demand. The company is aiming at a production of 12 lakh tonnes of phosphatic fertilisers in this fiscal.